Congressman Bob Goodlatte of Virginia's Sixth District poses for a portrait at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington D.C. / Stephen Maturen, USA TODAY

by Susan Page, USA TODAY

by Susan Page, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON - House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte has a message for advocates who calculate that rolling up a big margin of victory in the Senate will provide momentum to push an immigration overhaul through the House.

Not so fast.

In an interview with USA TODAY Friday, Goodlatte said any House bill would have to win a "sizable majority" of Republican votes - not rely on solid Democratic support with just enough GOP backers to pass it.

"That would be a very bad idea," the Virginia Republican said on "Capital Download," a weekly video newsmaker series. "I'm very much a believer in following regular order and in following the principle that the majority party should have a sizable majority of its members supporting major legislative initiatives going through the Congress, and immigration is the most major legislative initiative we've had in several years."

That "majority of the majority" isn't a legal requirement and doesn't have a long legislative history. It was pioneered by Republicans when the GOP won control of the House in the mid-1990s. Though it may sound like parliamentary jargon, it significantly increases the degree of difficulty in crafting a bill that can both pass the House and survive in the Senate.

"That will, in my opinion, create a considerably different bill than the Senate bill - a bill that I think will fix many of the problems with the Senate bill," Goodlatte said. Among them: He opposes granting any legal status to immigrants in the USA illegally until enforcement measures are in place to tighten security along the border and get control of legal visitors who overstay their visas.

He endorsed a proposal to deputize police to enforce immigration laws. "We want to make sure that ... we have the opportunity to use state and local law enforcement," he said.

Goodlatte repeated his commitment to passing several piecemeal measures on immigration rather than the Senate's comprehensive package.

House Speaker John Boehner has scheduled a special House Republican conference July 10 to discuss immigration. Top Republicans, among them former governors Haley Barbour of Mississippi and Jeb Bush of Florida, have warned that making up lost ground with Hispanic voters, including passage of an immigration bill, is critical for the future of the GOP.

Goodlatte bristled at criticism from Democrats and others after Republicans on the Judiciary Committee - all of whom are male - passed a ban this week on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. "It would be wonderful to have Republican women on the committee, and I am an advocate for seeing that happen," he said. "But it does not matter whether you're a man or a woman to care about the rights of unborn children and the rights of women."